By Paul McNamara

STEWART Donald was still digesting the events of a frantic and hugely successful day.

Yet, six hours after Eastleigh had drawn a highly-charged FA Cup tie with Bolton Wanderers, the club’s owner had his mind on more prosaic matters.

Donald was tapping away at his keyboard, composing an apology – posted on a fans’ online forum – after some supporters had encountered trouble with parking at the Silverlake Stadium ahead of the third round tie.

It is probably not part of the job Donald envisaged when he made his first steps into football club ownership in November 2011.

In fact, when the idea of him becoming involved with Eastleigh was first mooted, Donald thought this would be limited to handing over some sponsorship money to the then financially-stricken club.

As it transpired, Donald quickly discovered that the Spitfires were effectively on the market, officially completing a takeover in February 2012.

Now, with the team challenging at the top end of the National League, the owner’s vision is taking shape.

The Witney-based businessman detached himself from comments attributed to him at the time he assumed control, alluding to an ambition for Eastleigh to be playing in the Football League within five years – and in a ground commensurate to those grander surrounds, to boot.

Nevertheless, Donald is in no mood to hang around. It is simply not in his nature.

Having started out in the insurance business 24 years ago, Donald progressed from a junior role up to a senior management position, eventually joining with business partner Neil Fox to buy a string of companies.

Most prominent among the pair’s acquisitions was that of Bridle Insurance in June 2009. It was Bridle’s purchase of office premises in Chandler’s Ford that gave Donald his first tie-in with the area, where he would become such a prominent figure.

Eastleigh’s chairman has carried into his football venture the same fearless can-do attitude that has served him so well in the corporate world.

The Spitfires’ home is already unrecognisable from the relatively Spartan arena that hosted games in their 2013/2014 Conference South title-winning season.

Regardless, last month Donald announced that, subject to approval, the club will build a new 2,200-seat stand, incorporating all the add-ons that make up modern football stadia: the executive boxes, conference facilities and offices.

On the playing side, things are ticking along serenely.

The resignation of his close friend Richard Hill in September, however, will undoubtedly have pained Donald.

That assumption rings particularly true given his previous confession that the decision in September 2012 to dispense with Ian Baird, Hill’s predecessor as Spitfires’ manager, was one of the more unsavoury moments of his first foray into football.

But, with Chris Todd now in charge, Eastleigh are thriving. What is more, Todd knows that his chairman will back him unswervingly in any attempt to attract fresh talent to the Silverlake.

That Donald prefers to watch the players whose wages he pays from a spot on the terraces adds to his popularity among the supporters he stands alongside.

Those same supporters would have felt a chill run down their spine, then, when it was confirmed last July that Donald had purchased a 10 per cent stake in Oxford United, his first footballing love.

Donald’s actions and words, however, are those of a man fully immersed in everything Eastleigh. His hands-on approach was epitomised by last Saturday’s mea culpa regarding those parking issues, following perhaps the most memorable day in his club’s history – for the most part, an organisational triumph.

The Spitfires’ owner is aiming high – and he is happy to sweat the small stuff to get there.